1. Field
The following description relates to an indoor unit of an air conditioner having improved structures of suction, discharge and/or flow passages.
2. Description of the Related Art
An air conditioner, which generally uses a refrigeration cycle to adjust temperature, humidity, flow and distribution of ambient air to levels proper for human activities and remove dust from the air, includes a compressor, a condenser, an evaporator and a blower fan.
Air conditioners may be divided into a split type air conditioner, which has an indoor unit and an outdoor unit separately installed, and an integrated type air conditioner, which has an indoor unit and an outdoor unit installed together in a cabinet.
The indoor unit of the split type air conditioner is provided with a heat exchanger to exchange heat with air suctioned into a panel, and a blower fan to suction the indoor air into the panel and blow the same to the room.
For the split type air conditioner, a blower fan is generally disposed at the lower portion of the indoor unit, and a heat exchanger and an air discharge outlet allowing air to be discharged therethrough are disposed at the upper portion of the indoor unit. The air suctioned and blown by the blower fan moves to the upper portion of the indoor unit, passes the heat exchanger and the air discharge outlet, and is then discharged to the room.
However, for the indoor unit having such structure as above, the vertical arrangement of the blower fan and the heat exchanger may not be efficient in view of space utilization.
Moreover, since the air from the blower fan is moved to the upper portion of the indoor unit and then discharged, the flow passage leading from the lower portion of the indoor unit to the upper portion thereof is long, and the load applied to the blower fan to blow the suctioned air is large. Thereby inefficient utilization of energy may be caused, and increase in the volume and speed of air flow may be limited.
In addition, if the heat exchanger and the blower fan are disposed too close to each other to realize a compact and slim design of the indoor unit, air resistance in heat exchange may increase, resulting in degradation of performance of the blower fan and increase in noise level during operation.